SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 5, 2009

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Buys Video Compression Company On2
  

  Earlier today Google announced that it had acquired On2 Technologies in a stock deal worth approximately $106 million. There’s little true information about how Google intends to use On2 in the release. Here’s the Google quote: “Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a [...]

• Micro-Hoo: The Details Emerge With SEC Filing
  

  First to pounce on the SEC 8-K filing by Yahoo was PaidContent, which provides an extensive bulleted list of many of the deal terms not revealed last week during the frenzy of conference calls and articles that followed the official announcement of the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal. CNET also writes about selected aspects of the deal [...]

• Report: 90% Of Bing’s Internet Pharmacies Search Ads Lead To Rogue Sites
  

  A report (PDF) by LegitScript and KnujOn claims that of the prescription drug and online pharmacy search ads on Bing (i.e. adCenter), Microsoft’s search engine, 89.7% led to “rogue” Internet pharmacies. By “rogue” they mean Internet pharmacies that fall into the categories of:

  Those that facilitate the sale of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, without [...]

• Creating Synergies With Organic & Paid Search
  

  It’s no secret that SEO is but one tactic which can be used to drive traffic to your site. Anyone who has managed SEO and paid search campaigns can easily point out the advantages of both. The trick, in larger companies, is to ensure they exist side by side. Too many times these core traffic [...]

• Google Maps Plots Attractions, Points Of Interest
  

  Google keeps adding layers of data to its maps: images, articles, video, user lists and so on. In addition to a new, dedicated Street View site, the Google LatLong Blog yesterday announced that it had added “icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly on the map itself.”

  This effectively enables users to discover [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• A speedier, spiffier beta for Google Chrome, Official Google Blog
• New in Labs: Hide labels, see subject lines on netbooks, Official Gmail Blog
• Why I believe in the link economy, Reuters

Business Issues

• Microsoft Needs More to Stall Google’s Engine, Wall Street Journal
• Yahoo! purchase deed filed for $450,000 land parcel : Niagara County, The Buffalo News
• Google Sells Underperforming Radio Ad Business, New York Times
• Is Google Killing General Knowledge?, New York Times

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps LBC: How to make % Complete = 100%, Mike Blumenthal
• Amazing Application Of Maps In Google Book Search, SEO Igloo Blog

Link Building

• Link Building Evaluation Guide, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• Two more chances to attend a new AdWords interface webinar, Inside AdWords
• Google AdSense Sending Out Duplicate Checks In Mail, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Understanding Medical Tests with Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEM Industry

• Welcome to the New Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• Decide When and Where to Fly With Flexible Search Tools, Bing Community
• Determining Keyword Competition When Doing Keyword Research for SEO, HighRankings Forums
• More Cloaking Tests In Form Of Fake Referrers From Microsoft Bing?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Pardon Our Dust: Temporary Issues with Webmaster Tools, Google News Blog
• Recent locations influence Google Search Results, seogadget.co.uk
• SEO Witchcraft: Use Keywords on Your Clients, Search Engine People | Toronto
• Think Twice Before Changing Your Site URL Structure, Search Engine Journal
• Title Tag and Meta Description Length for Google, Yahoo, Bing & Ask, SageRock
• Webmasters can change "quick links" on Yandex, Search Cowboys

Social Media

• Being HUGE on Twitter: A Small Business Case Study, 10e20 Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Flickr Loses a Few Thousand More Pictures, with No Recourse, Valleywag
• Getting The Most Out Of YouTube, Small Business Trends